Opera

French Opera: Passion & Tragedy

Carmen, Pelléas, and the soul of French lyricism

6 selections · Stage Door Society Editorial

Carmen is the entry point — but Pelléas et Mélisande is the destination. Debussy's setting of Maeterlinck's symbolist play is unlike anything else in the repertoire.

Opera

Carmen

Georges Bizet · 1875

In Seville, the seductive Romani factory worker Carmen captivates the naïve soldier Don José with her untamable spirit and sensuality, luring him away from his duty and childhood sweetheart Micaëla. As José descends into obsession, Carmen's affections shift to the charismatic bullfighter Escamillo, setting the stage for a tragic confrontation between love, jealousy, and fate. Bizet's masterpiece combines Spanish passion with operatic grandeur, exploring themes of desire and the destructive power of unbridled emotion.

Opera

Faust

Charles François Gounod · 1859

An aging scholar trades his soul to the devil for youth and seduction, only to destroy the innocent woman he loves.

Opera

Les contes d'Hoffmann

Jacques Offenbach · 1881

A poet recounts three tragic love affairs haunted by a shape-shifting villain who systematically destroys his romantic aspirations.

Opera

Werther

Jules Massenet · 1892

Massenet's achingly beautiful drame lyrique traces the tragic passion of Werther, a sensitive young poet who arrives in a provincial German town and falls irrevocably in love with Charlotte, a woman already bound by duty to marry the steadfast Albert. As Werther's romantic idealism collides with the harsh realities of social obligation and unrequited desire, the opera builds toward an inevitable and devastating conclusion. A masterwork of lyrical expression that captures the fevered intensity of Romantic longing.

Opera

Pelléas et Mélisande

Claude Debussy · 1902

A mysterious woman ignites forbidden passion between two brothers in a mythical kingdom, leading to tragedy in Debussy's dreamlike masterpiece.

Opera

Dialogues des Carmélites

Francis Poulenc · 1957

A timid aristocrat enters a Carmelite convent during the French Revolution, discovering spiritual strength as she and her sisters face persecution and martyrdom.

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